Levent ethics hearing scheduled Monday

FORSYTH COUNTY, Ga. – An ethics complaint that has consumed 10 months and cost Forsyth County taxpayers nearly $200,000 in legal fees could finally, mercifully, be decided by a Forsyth County Ethics Board Monday (Feb. 28).

The Board will meet at 9 a.m. in the Commissioners Meeting Room in the County Administration Building, 110 East Main Street.

District 3 Commissioner Todd Levent is the target of the complaint which alleges he accessed Commissioner Cindy Mills email account without filing an Open Records Request.

Last May, commissioners authorized an outside agency to investigate Levent at a cost not to exceed $20,000. In August they voted 3-0 (Commissioners Levent and Mills recused) to censure him. Two weeks later, they voted to spend an unlimited amount of taxpayer dollars to hire a law firm to bring their complaint before the Ethics Board. As of December, the price tag had reached more than $180,000.

But the investigation revealed Levent did file an Open Records Request when he asked Carolyn Haag, an administrative aid to the commissioners, to retrieve the emails for him. Ga. OCGA 50-18-71 clearly points out that an Open Records Request may be made orally or in writing. The same emails can be retrieved by any citizen.

In announcing Levent’s censure, Commissioner Semanson (then Chairwoman) accused him of “obtaining un-redacted lists of current emails.” Georgia law does permit some limited redactions in response to an ORR, however it is government’s responsibility to redact the information where permitted.

Levent has said he did nothing wrong and that the investigation is a political vendetta.

He will be represented by attorney Daran Burns.